Overweight toddler baffles doctors
Mexican 10-month-old who weighs 28kg may end up with hefty medical bills
TecomAn: Like any other 10-month-old, Luis Manuel Gonzales babbles, observes things with a keen eye and touches anything within reach, but he stands out in a stunning and perhaps life-threatening way: he weighs 28kg.
He might need medical treatment costing a fortune, but his father earns a little over US$200 (RM839) a month, and doctors do not know why young Luis Manuel is so huge.
Mexico leads the world in childhood obesity and diabetes, and Gonzales is an extreme example of this unwelcome distinction.
At birth he weighed 3.5kg, about the same as his brother Mario, who is almost three but is now dwarfed by his baby brother.
At two months, Luis weighed 10kg. In eight months, he gained a staggering 18kg.
“I thought it was because I had good breast milk,” said his mother, 24-year-old Isabel Pantoja, speaking in their unpainted cement home in the Pacific coast state of Colima.
They take turns pushing him to the hospital in a decrepit stroller for daily blood tests.
It hurts to watch the nurses search among the rolls of fat on his arms for a vein, said his father, Mario Gonzales.
The parents were shocked when a paediatrician told them the boy may need hormone injections worth US$555 (RM2,329) each.
His parents created a Facebook page and opened a bank account for people to donate money for Luis Manuel’s medical care.
Despite in-depth research, nobody knows what is wrong with the child.
One hypotheses is that he may have PraderWilli Syndrome, a genetic condition which gives patients an insatiable appetite, though the boy does not eat voraciously or spend the day demanding food.
Pantoja caresses her son as she recounts that when he was a little more than a month old, Luis Manuel had to wear clothes meant for two or three year-olds.
The day of his first vaccine he weighed 10kg, she said. One day the stroller simply collapsed under his weight.
He has to go to the hospital as many as four times a week for tests, but he cannot walk or even crawl. He can only sit upright.
Pantoja, a well-built factory worker, grows tired from having to carry him so much.
But there is hope. Silvia Orozco, a surgeon, examined Luis Manuel, and theorises the boy’s problem may be glandular, causing his metabolism to under-perform.
If that is the case, the prognosis is good and would involve hormone shots.